Yesterday was one of those wild travel days where nothing goes quite to plan and somehow, that’s what made it brilliant.
We kicked things off with a bit of a museum adventure it was about ¥500 about £3 to do 15 museums. So first stop: the Samurai Museum. I was keen to soak in the armour, swords, and centuries of warrior history, but Dotty had other ideas. She was having a proper rough morning tired, upset, and not in the mood for samurai. So I took her for a walk outside to calm her down and help her reset.
Meanwhile, Ali ducked into a different museum over the road from the samurai museum (we still can’t remember what it was if anyone reading this knows, feel free to drop us a message!). Georgia and I had a little wander together while we waited, which was actually a calm moment in the chaos.
After Ali finished up, I finally got my turn and headed into the Ninja Museum. It was packed with sneaky gadgets, hidden traps, and shadowy lore, but the highlight?
The ninja star throwing arena.
Yep, I gave it a crack. Didn’t win a prize, but honestly, it’s all about taking part and lobbing shuriken at a target is way more satisfying than it should be! It’s a lot harder than you think it would be as well, it’s a bit like trying to throw a dart it’s the same action and requires incredible force.
With our minds full of samurai and ninjas, we grabbed lunch and strolled over to Castle Park for the afternoon. Dotty started to bounce back laughing, climbing, and getting back to her usual spirited self.
Then came the moment of madness.
A hawk swooped down and stole Dotty’s lunch. Again.
Second time someone’s had their lunch stolen since we’ve been in Japan. You just can’t make this stuff up.
To her credit, Dotty took it better than most adults would. I think Georgia was more shocked. She is traumatised by seagulls though but Then she was back to running about, dotty carried on smiling and running about like nothing ever happened.
Resilience levels: ninja-grade.
We squeezed in one more museum this time it was a gold leaf museum, as it turns out the gold leaf was created in a very painstaking process and ultimately it’s still created in the same way, by hammering tiny pieces of gold until they’re 1-10000 of a mm by hammering them between sheets of special paper paper. It also turns out that 99% of Japan’s gold leaf is made in Kanazawa which is crazy considering howmuch gold leaf they use.
After this we headed to a play area which was amazing we did about an hour and a half there they had these awesome roller slides that I’ve never seen quite frankly slightly dangerous, but amazing at the same time.
We wrapped things up with a delicious Indian dinner veggie for Ali and Georgia, and full bellies all round. The day that started off wobbly ended in laughter, spice, and peace. Travel days like this are unpredictable, chaotic, and absolutely unforgettable.
